Fond Farewell to flying club founding member

By Tim Foulkes

We have lost another founding member of our flying club. Stan Olsanski was one of a fairly regular group of old-timers who gathered around the coffee pot at the clubhouse when I first took an interest in flying 7 or 8 years ago. He was one of a very few in this area who was actively involved in working on an airplane, and because I had planned at that time to build my own, I had occasion to talk to him a bit about airplanes.

Stan was a member of COPA and helped found our COPA Flight 129. He was also a founding and lifetime member of the St Croix Valley Flying Club in St. Stephen. Stan always had a story about what he had flown and owned, (everything from Pipers to P-51s) and even though some may have questioned the veracity of some of his stories, his enthusiasm for flying was most definitely, very real.

Stan died on Jan. 16, after a long battle with breathing difficulties. Our sympathies go out to his wife, Marie and his extended family.